Fartlek-ing all over Swift

Fartlek-ing all over Swift

11 PAX set off on Tuesday morning from the Ballantyne AO to see if there was some speed still left in the legs after a grueling weekend.

  • 0500 – Fire Hazard and Strange Brew head out for some extra miles
  • 0515 – Rest of the crew joins on a path to the Ballantyne Corporate bridge over Hwy 521 for a mile of warm-up, drills & strides.
  • Start the Fartlek run staying in the confines of the Ballantyne Corporate Bridge
  • 30sec jog, 20sec normal run, 10sec SPRINT, REPEATO 4x then 2:00 jog
  • 30sec jog, 20sec normal run, 10sec SPRINT, REPEATO 4x then 2:00 jog
  • 30sec jog, 20sec normal run, 10sec SPRINT, REPEATO 4x then 2:00 jog
  • 30sec jog, 20sec normal run, 10sec SPRINT, REPEATO 4x
  • Option A – head back 0.5mi to COT
  • Option B – go a longer 1.25mi route to COT
  • FINISHED.

The Moleskin:

  • Many in the group today (Tootie, Strange Brew, Hops, Frasier, Bratwurst) were trying to shake things out after saying goodbye to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville on Saturday.  Several stories to tell, but all made it back in one piece.  Special recognition to Hops and Tootie who ran 4 legs and Frasier who put down 5 legs (though it almost didn’t happen until a pot of golden Mac N Cheese).  We kept things mostly light and short today to allow for decent recovery.
  • Wing Man has been so busy developing the excellent Area51 app (http://f3area51.apphb.com/) that he hasn’t made it to a 0515 Swift in a while – Kotters!
  • Cable Guy back for some more Swift.  While no race in sight, he probably needs to get drafted on a “competitive” Mud Run team.  Due can move pretty well.
  • Don’t know what Fire Hazard’s race plans are, but something tells me he is planning for a podium finish at the next Mud Run.
  • Stump Hugger had to wake up his sleeping toe (or put it back to bed) and cut out early, but still got in a great workout.
  • We’ll expect LongHaul to keep running with sling on after upcoming shoulder surgery, but as for now, he’s going to keep running to make recovery easier when he gets ordered to stop.

Announcements:

  • Swift is starting back up next week with some workouts to progress towards a 10K / 6mi Race.  Guess what the Fall Mud Run is – a 6 Mile Race!  Give yourself a performance boost by focusing on your running before the next Mud Run (looking at you Bagpipe guys)…

Preblast: Devil’s Turn – Track Day Returns

Tomorrow is track day at Devil’s Turn.  It has been a long while since we have circled the track and for those who manhandled the BRR last weekend, it may provide a less strenuous outlet of energy.

We will leave the 4 Mile Creek Greenway parking area (Rea Rd & Bevington Place) at 0515.  If you are late, meet us at the SCMS track when you can manage.

Running format is negotiable but it is suggested to use Marathon Pace with periods of vigorous Threshold Pace sprinkled in.  Find these paces in the calculator at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator

See you tomorrow!

Where is My Mind?

I’m a bit of a music snob and one of my all-time favorites is 90s alternative rockers – The Pixies. They really never got the credit or fame they deserve. One song, in particular, describes my typical  Q experience.

With your feet on the air
And your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head’ll collapse
If there’s nothing in it
And then you’ll ask yourself

Where is my mind?
Where is my mind?
Where is my mind?

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

The usual pleasantries were exchanged and we were off and running. We added in the usual high-knees, butt-kickers and shuffles.

COP Warm-Up
SSH x 20
IW x 15
Mountain Merkin x 15

A short jaunt to the cones I had placed prior to the Pax’s arrival. It was time for The Beast – six rounds of six exercises at each of the six cones.

Round 1 – CDD
Round 2 – Hand-release merkins
Round 3 – Plank jacks
Round 4 – Jump squats
Round 5 – Toe-tapper crunches
Round6 – Burpees

We moseyed up the parking lot steps to the benches

Group 1 – Split squats x 12
Group 2 – Wheel of merkins (16 per round)
Flap-jack x 2

Next we ran back the steps to the adjacent hills

7s
Start with 6 back lunges and 1 jump squat
Jacob’s ladder until complete

Freddy Mercury x 20

After a short mosey, we partnered up again

Parter 1 runs to the end of the parking lot
Partner 2 does squats
Flap jack until until a combined total of 100

Railroad tie run, two rounds

Mary-O-Rama
20 LBC
20 Rosalita
20 Flutter

Fin.

Moleskine
I appreciate the warm welcome and I was happy to help at a site I don’t normally post. It’s great to see two newer guys – keep pushing!

Back in the Saddle

The M has been selfishly taking away my Wednesday workouts to pursue her own fitness aspirations. That’s going to have to change. Missed the Anvil crew and was happy to be back. No new guys, only 2 site FNGs (Swiper and Sundancer)…let’s go.

Moving COP: no time for circling up

  • Mosey over to North Face (NF): called exercise at starting point / run NF / called exercise at top / back to start
    • Low slow squats x 15 IC
    • Traverse the NF
    • IW  x 10 IC
    • Merkins x 15 IC
    • Traverse NF
    • 10 HR burpees OYO
    • CDD x 15 IC
    • Traverse NF
  • Over to benches by Church: Incline merkins x 15 IC
  • Get on your horse over to front of Church…
  • Plank work:
    • Slow Maktar Ndiaye’s x 10 (civilian count)
    • hold plank
    • 6 inches……10 count courtesy of Van Pelt
  • Plank walk approximately 20 yards, bearcrawl slolom through Church columns….rinse and repeat in reverse direction (#symmetry)
  • Burp ‘n Merk to 10 – burpee w/ 1 merkin, burpee w/ 2 merkins…..burpee w/ 10 merkins
  • Rock work
    • 21s curls / 10 diamonds on rock / AYG to light pole (75 yards and back)
    • Asinines x 10 OYO / 10 diamonds on rock / AYG
    • Curls x 10 / 10 diamonds / AYG
    • Asinines x 5 OYO / 5 diamonds / AYG
  • Sweatbox benches:
    • 10 derkins…hold….10 derkins
    • 10 derkins…hold….10 derkins
  • Sprint work:
    • Plank, 5 HR merkins, hold…AYG to light pole (100 yards)
    • Plank, 6 inches (watch out for truck)….AYG back to start
    • Plank, 6 inches…..AYG
    • Plank….AYG
  • Mary:
    • Flutter x 28 IC
    • Freddy Mercury x 20 IC
    • Rosalita x 15 IC (call courtesy of Mermaid)
    • LBC x 10 IC (call courtesy of Lorax)
    • 10 HR merkins

DONE

Das Skins

Awesome being back to Anvil and at the Q spot.  Wasn’t sure i was going to make it today, as around 3:30 i awoke for the day to a wonderful stomach issue.  I’ll spare everyone the details…though i did burden Voodoo, Sundancer and Chanel with the deets…sorry #isharedtoomuch #besties #hopeyoucaneattoday.

Strong crew today; people were blazing on the AYGs #leadingfromthemiddle.

Great to have a couple brothers in Swiper and Sundancer that i’ve met since hitting SOFA WIB join us. Everyone should try this workout. Seriously the hardest workout in F3 off Rea Road at 5:30 that meets at Olde Providence. Fast dudes.

BRR Monday blues at DMZ

Well not exactly the blues, more like holy crap.. I can’t believe I signed up to Q on the Monday after running in my first 9 man BRR team. What could I do to limit the running? Oh, I could make 20 men sit on the wall in peoples chair for 20 minutes, that should do it!

The Thang’

Disclaimer, start running to Carmel Middle School. On the way, stop at the first speed bump – 20 Mirkins OYO – Second speed bump 20 low slow squats OYO, hold wrestling stance for 1 min.

Continue to bus parking lot-  COT

  • SSH x20
  • Burpee x20 OYO
  • IW  x20
  • Burpee x15 OYO
  • Mountain Climber x20
  • Burpee x10 OYO
  • LBC x20
  • Burpee x5 OYO

Mosey to the rock pile near baseball field, grab a ‘respectable’ rock head to the school find some wall.

Wall sit – Peoples Chair:

  • with Rock 20 overhead presses in Cadence
  • Hold Rock in front for .30 secs
  • Place rock on ground
  • Lift Right leg hold .30 secs
  • Flapjack, Left leg .30 secs

Rinse and repeat 2x

Partner Up – One rock  between you and your partner. Cross legs for good ole fashion sit-ups. Passing the rock on each time you sit up.

  • Set #1: x20
  • Set #2: x40
  • Set #3: x60 (smoker) 

    Back on the Wall – Wall sit:

    • with Rock 20 overhead presses in Cadence
    • Hold Rock in front for .30 secs
    • Place rock on ground
    • Lift Right leg hold .30 secs
    • Flapjack, Left leg .30 secs
    • Continue to hold wall sit –
    • Arm raises in Cadence  x50
    • Hold Arms Straight 1 min

Replace rocks

Form 2 lines Indian run back to Carmel Park

Naked Mole Skin:

  • Kenny Thomas, Ranger is speaking at the White Water Center on Oct 4 at 11am . There is a bushwacker race prior and a pig pickin’ post the speech. Please check WWC website for additional information.
  • f3 Workout at the Billy Gram Library this Sat at 7am – Check out twitter for more details.

 

Q MIA

With Chippy (the scheduled Q) MIA Wild Turkey stepped up to help Outback with the honors in leading 24 other fools on an early morning adventure.  Given this one was pulled out on the fly please forgive any forgotten pain but beleive it went down something like this:

Wild Turkey up first

Mosey out of the vine and added some high knees, butt kickers, and side shuffles

COP

SSH x 20

Imperial walker x 15

Mountain climbers x 20

Merkins x 15

Mosey to the next parking lot and find a lamp/tree and a friend

Partner 1 does standing rows with lamp/tree (lads some trees were shaken a little too much)

Partner 2 does  derkins x 20

Flap jack

Mosey to the next parking lot for some:

Bear crawls

Lunge Walk

Bulgarian split squats (don’t ask!)

Mosey to the next parking lot for some rolling merkins and hand-off to Outback

Outback up next

Bagpipe is just not Bagpipe without a trip to Loch Ness so off we went.

First pain station 1 minute to do as many derkins as possible

Second pain station 1 minute to do as many toe tap crunches as you can

Go for a short mosey and up a hill follow by some crab walks across a very damp field

Next pain station on the Loch involved as many dips as you can in one minute

Next up was 5 Burpees

Mosey to the next parking lot for some merkin honors and some Mary.

Mosey to Bank of America to make a deposit of

Merkins x 20

Top taps x 20

Dry Docks x 20

Headed back to the car park and saw our Swift brothers in the huddle however we still had 2 mins left so to show the Swift folks how to run we had a jail brake to the corner and back.

Thanks to all the pax sticking with the us in the gloom this am.

 

Leading from Behind: Part Deux

13 men showed for a post-BRR repat (look it up).  The route had minimal hills, which was welcome, and the temp was a brisk 53, which was also very welcome.

The Thang:

Quick disclaimer that I was neither a professional nor a fast runner, and that I was going to need to solicit help from Mr. Brady and the rest of the up-front gang to get us where we need to be, and off we went.

Warm up mosey to Davie Park for COP

IW x 12 (for the Q to count the pax)

Enough COP

Run 1.2 miles up 51 to Calvary, turning in at the second 51 entrance and following the road around to the top of the Rea entrance.

At Calvary – Run back towards 51 and do 5 CDDs at the last speed hump, return and do 5 merkins.  4 laps of this increasing the exercises by 5 each lap. Each lap was about ½ mile.  LBCs, Flutters, Plank to wait for the 6.  At least that’s what the Q instructed, not sure if it actually happened, as the Q was among the 6.

Run back to 51 and 1.15 miles to the Davey Park entrance.  Mary to wait for the 6 was intended but the Q forgot to make this clear.  Brief plank work while the rest the 6 arrived and off for the last .65 miles back to the school.

Done.

Moleskine:

A small crowd today by Fast Twitch standards, I’m sure a few guys are still recovering from the BRR.  The plan was to try to keep the rabbits from getting too far ahead of the Q, which was mostly accomplished. Not too many long distances at one time, which led to some good fellowship chatter among the pax.  I did notice the chatter quieted down a bit on the run back from Calvary, leading me to turn around and make sure the rest of the 6 was still with me.

A little Site VQ hazing was attempted but as a former athlete and fraternity member, I’ve been hazed, and it was amateur hour!  Nice try anyway, men.

Great work by everyone today.  Garmin says 5.91 miles were covered, Siri says 6.07, and 50 merkins and CDDs each were done.  #nosoccerarms

Flutie Flakes – thank you for the take out.  Well done.  Great to hear your daughter is home and doing well.

Announcements:

Post-BRR Happy Hour at the Lodge, Wednesday at 6:00pm. Non-BRR runners are welcome but will probably be mocked

361(ish) days until 2016 BRR

###

posted on behalf of Ironsides

SOFAWIB: The Splinter

Six bold manly men ventured out for this week’s edition of SOFAWIB where they experienced

THE SPLINTER:
Partner up – pairings were Iron Mike/Talkbox, Kirk/Voodoo, Backdraft/Sundancer

Take a right out of OP onto Rea and run to HT, loop around the first pillar, and back to OP (+/- 1 mile). Run past the buddy bench to the football field.

Partner 1 – runs back the buddy bench playground for 10 pull-ups and then runs back to the concession area for 20 dips and 20 derkins. P1 runs back to the football field. Sumo squats while waiting for your partner.

Partner 2 – runs out the trail to Foxworth and up the hill. At the top (intersection with Bedfordshire), P2 does 40 LBCs, runs down the hill for 40 Freddy Mercury (single count, i.e. 20 each side), and runs back on the trail to the football field. Sumo squats while waiting for your partner.
When partners meet at the football field, partner carry to midfield and back (switch as needed).
If you believe like I do that partner carry’s are a great way to injure yourself, modifications were granted in the form of 10 dumbocrats each.

Partners flapjack – P1 heads to Foxworth, P2 heads to the playground – and that’s one set.
Stop at 0606 and run the HT mile again with a left into OP for COT.

The AAR:
Prior to the green flag, Daisy drove into the parking lot, which is weird because 1) he lives across the street, and 2) he was in normal human clothes. A part of me really wanted to see him join the workout in khakis and collar because that’s exactly the kind of weird I want to see weekly. Alas, he was off to help support the voting process. So t-claps to him for that.

The gloom is dark and full of terrors. The trail behind OldE was pretty much a blackout. While the risk of injury was elevated, the dark and quiet was kind of nice. Right until I almost collided with Voodoo and Kirk ran over a tree. I guess its headlamp season until Daylight Whatever Time.

Contrary to how it looks and feels, The Splinter is a high mileage workout at 4.2 miles. Mix in the other routines and while nothing leads to muscle failure, everything just kind of aches all over.

Happy to be paired with my man Backdraft this morning. Since I have no clue how much of anything anyone else did, I have to assume that Backdraft and I did the most cycles, and therefore won SOFAWIB this week. Everyone else will just have to try harder next week.

And now, the official tallies –
Did Sundancer Vomit?: NO
Did Iron Mike Go Shirtless?: NO
Was Kirk Injured?: BRR HANGOVER, ALMOST SONNY BONO’D HIMSELF

I appreciate you all for coming out. And thank you for making SOFAWIB your weekly choice for partial sensory deprivation. See you next week when Voodoo plans to have us deadlift the police car.

Skunkworks – Back to Our Roots

25 men celebrated the cooler weather, the return to CDS and the end of the BRR at Skunkworks. It was nice to have the old crew back together. Here’s what we did.

Warm-Up
– SSH
– IW
– Merkins
– 50 swings

Farmer Carry
– Partner up w/ like-sized KB
– Partner one: run w/ both KBs, Partner two: 5 burpees and chase

Hill Suicides
– Run to first median and back, second median and back, road and back, exercise in between each run (3x reps per set)
– Round 1: two-handed swings x20
– Round 2: snatches x5 each arm
– Round 3: overhead press x15
– Round 4: just run
– Round 5: Goblet Squats x15
– round 6: lawnmowers x10 each arm

Return
– Mosey up hill w/ KB, lock it out each arm, waddle back w/ KB

Great effort out there today. It was supposed to be hard, and I think it accomplished the goal. Not surprisingly, we had plenty of complaining from the soccer-arm BRR crew. Not that you have run across two states, time to start working on a heavier KB. Make a trip down to Muscle Driver. You should be at least at 35 lbs, move up to 45 lbs if you are already at 35.

Welcome FNG Bounce, John Lintner, long lost cousin of Matt Lindner.

Hopefully you got the notice about the change of location back to CDS high school parking lot. Anyone still at ABC store this am? Hacker?

– Harley

Wicked Tuna: Base Camp

The Q has probably been watching too much Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks (hence the title), but with this cool Monday morning, I was definitley inspired.

The Thang:

Take off for a quick parking lot trip of high knees, karaoke and butt kickers.

Mosey to rock pile next to staircase, choose [rock-size] wisely and head for parking lot entrance. 15-Curls OYO, Mosey down Strawberry Lane, stop at driveway for 15-Overhead Presses OYO, Mosey to corner for 15-BehindHead Presses OYO.

Mosey to Hill for 7’s: Low Slow Squat on top and Rock Curl-Overhead-Behindhead Combo on bottom.Plank-o-Rama to wait on six.

Mosey to daycare parking lot for flutter presses x 20.

Mosey back to school and break up into two groups. Group 1 – Run the island parking lot; Group 2 – Step-ups/ One-Leg extensions

Flapjack. Round 2 – Switch legs, Repato. 3rd Round – Dips.

Return Rocks to Rock-Pile. Grab some wall for Peoples-Chair. Overhead Press (Civilian Count) x 50. Decline Mountain-Climbers x 10, Back to Peoples Chair, Decline Mountain-Climbers x 10 (Encore)

Head to parking lot for mary. Dollie x 15, Rosalita x 15, LBC x 30 (Civilian Count) and the Protractor.

Run 1.5x around parking lot increasing pace 25% – 50% – 75% to finish near parking lot entrance. Pair-up and AYG Partner Race back for the COT.

Moleskin:

With the first blast of cool air, the Pax were ready to go this morning. I thought Torpedo was going to freeze before we got started. Simba should have recognized some of this workout, it was inspired by his “Back to School” workout from last year, when the QIC was a FNG. It was the first time I tried the [Van Pelt Inspired] Decline Mountain Climbers. It’s one of those, “Okay, I understand but never thought of that combination”. I didn’t feel that way afterwards, it was more like, “That Stinks!”. Goonie seemed to push through the ankle-pain. (Way to beast it out Bro!)

Fireman Ed and Simba do a great job Q-ing this site and are always engaging to the PAX. A special thanks for their continued leadership at Base Camp.

Thanks to the PAX for joining me in the Lords Prayer to honor my good friend Sam Shelby who lost his battle against lung cancer on Sunday. #mojowarriors

Big Tuna